Arizona Cardinals shorthanded on offensive line
By Scott Allen
The Arizona Cardinals have ruled one of their offensive linemen out for Sunday at Buffalo
They signed him to a one-year deal in hopes that valley resident and Arizona Cardinals right guard Evan Mathis could bring some veteran leadership to the offensive line. The Cardinals lost a few players from last year’s line.
Mathis, who lives in the valley, played for the Denver Broncos Super Bowl 50 team last season. Close to the end of his career, it was thought he could come in and help the Cardinals. He could end his season here.
Mathis has been ruled out this Sunday against the Buffalo Bills. He was injured in the season-opener against the New England Patriots. He came back to play however.
Then last week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he suffered turf toe. Mathis was held out of practice all week but it wasn’t enough to keep him on the field this Sunday. Earl Watford will start in his place.
You have to wonder how much Mathis has left in the tank? While Mathis no doubt has had a great career, turf toe is a tough injury and can linger all season long.
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ESPN.com reported that Cardinals Carson Palmer said that his foot was purple on Monday. That’s not a good sign and it turned out it keeps him from playing this week.
The question now is can Mathis be counted on for the rest of the season? It sounds like it could be a week-to-week thing.
The Cardinals have only allowed two sacks of Palmer so far. However the Cardinals running game struggled a little against the Bucs. They need a stable line if they want to keep Palmer upright all season. Depth becomes a concern now.
Besides Mathis, it sounds like defensive tackle Frostee Rucker and linebacker Kareem Martin will be out again. They were both listed as doubtful for Sunday. This is not a shocking revelation though. We expected both of them to miss this week.